Oracle also declared a quarterly cash dividend of 6 cents per share of outstanding common stock, up from 5 cents last quarter.

CEO and co-founder Larry Ellison cited an upsurge in new business, based largely on much of the Sun Microsystems IP the company added in January 2010, as a key to its continued profit/revenue growth.

"In Q3 we signed several large hardware and software deals with some of the biggest names in cloud computing," Ellison said.

"For example, Salesforce.com's new multi-year contract enables them to continue building virtually all of their cloud services on top of the Oracle database and Oracle middleware. Oracle is the technology that powers the cloud."

Ellison said that interest in the company's Java-based Exadata database server -- which he has touted as the fastest such server in the world -- contnues to grow. In December, Ellison said the so-called "pipeline" for new business from Exadata has doubled in the last 11 months to nearly $2 billion-indicating the amount of potential sales revenue in the coming nine months.

Acquisitions Haven't Hurt Bottom Line

Oracle's acquisitions of Sun ($7.4 billion) and 10 other companies -- including e-commerce software vendor Art Technology Group for $1 billion and health-care app maker Phase Forward for $685 million -- in the last 13 months haven't affected the balance sheet adversely.

"We now have a broader portfolio," co-president Mark Hurd told analysts and media members on a conference call. "We can now offer incremental value in a wide array of product areas. We also have many more opportunities to cross-sell, because we have so many more things that our customers are interested in.

"If you deliver what you promise to deliver, and build a relationship with that customer, you will be rewarded. It's the old saying: 'The best place to get a second sale is to go back to the first.'"